Zero Trust Experts in Cologne
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Meet FRATCH Experts in Cologne, who have recently used Zero Trust
Matthias Schneider
Last position:
Overall Project Coordinator at Bundeswehr Informatik (BWI GmbH)
- PMO lead for Security Clearance 2 (SÜ2) cleared
- Reporting to sub-program management GMN
- System maintenance 25+
- Functional control and coordination of Jira setup
- Preparation of decision papers (e.g. project planning, steering model, communication plans, controlling models, role and responsibility matrices)
- Development of program-wide knowledge management using Confluence, creation of Jira concept
- Development of an access concept for all project tools
- Analyzing existing processes, identifying improvement potential, and designing solutions to increase efficiency and effectiveness
- Development of a concept for introducing automation approaches in existing tools
- Creating intranet articles as project marketing
- Responsible for project governance through reporting and resource planning in the sub-program
- Agile further development of the project method
- Gathering customer requirements (requirements engineering)
- Preparation and support of contract negotiations (7-year term, budget of over 500 million)
Halil Oeztoprak
Last position:
Senior Cloud Operations & DevSecOps Engineer (Azure / Terraform / CI-CD) at KfW Bankengruppe
Regulated environment within a German banking group (approx. 8,500 employees, hybrid cloud strategy).
Responsible for operating, provisioning, and continuously securing business-critical platforms – including a GenAI chat application, a big data/AI platform, and data science workspaces based on Azure Virtual Desktops and VMs. Ownership of Azure DevOps projects for ShaiHulud and React2Shell, as well as BSI alerts – Security Operations improvements across the SDLC.
Deployment responsibility for the GenAI chat application, big data/AI platform (BDAI), and data science workspaces (AVD/VM-based) in the respective landing zones.
Deployment & release management: end-to-end responsibility for deploying portal and service applications across multiple Azure landing zones, including technical approvals, compliance with development team deployment guidelines, and ensuring ITIL-based change and release processes via ServiceNow.
Azure landing zones & network architecture: design, provisioning, and operation of Azure landing zones for 3-tier web applications with enhanced network segmentation, VNet peering, hub-and-spoke architectures, private endpoints, and firewall integration across separate subscriptions and tenants.
Azure DevOps governance & operations: ownership of the Azure DevOps organization, including projects, repositories, and CI/CD pipelines; implementation of governance requirements such as branch policies, approval gates, permission models, and audit-ready operating structures.
Infrastructure as Code (Terraform): design, implementation, and operation of a modular Terraform architecture for standardized cloud infrastructure deployment, including state management, provider versioning, reusability, and policy-as-code approaches.
CI/CD pipeline engineering: design, operation, and optimization of complex YAML-based CI/CD pipelines with multi-stage deployments, template standardization, self-hosted agents, integrated secret management, and automated quality and security checks.
Git migration & platform consolidation: planning and execution of repository and pipeline migration from Azure DevOps to GitLab CI/CD, including automated scripts, full Git history transfer, pipeline porting, and platform consolidation.
Container & platform operations (AKS): operation and security assessment of containerized workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service, centralization of on-premises container registries for ACR.
OpenShift (OCP) security reviews: security assessment of code baselines, build pipelines, and deployment processes for on-premises OpenShift clusters with critical applications, and derivation of specific hardening recommendations.
Shift-left security & DevSecOps transformation: introduction of a company-wide shift-left approach for early security integration in development and deployment processes, enabling developers to perform self-led security checks and sustainably reduce vulnerabilities before production (IDE integrations, pre-commit hooks, local scanners).
Software supply chain security: analysis and mitigation of supply chain risks in NPM- and Yarn-based applications through dependency audits, CI/CD pipeline hardening, token rotation, and restriction of risky build and lifecycle mechanisms.
Frontend & framework security (React / Next.js): security assessment and coordination of critical vulnerability remediation across platform applications and web frameworks, including coordination and complementary technical mitigations with all teams following BSI alerts.
Software composition analysis (SCA): introduction and operation of automated vulnerability scans for container images, pipelines/artifacts, and third-party dependencies, including SBOM exports within CI/CD pipelines.
SAST/DAST integration: design and piloting of static and dynamic application security tests in close collaboration with security architecture and development teams, for continuous improvement of code and runtime security, and establishing operational acceptance tests.
Artifact & registry consolidation: analysis and consolidation of all package and container repositories for service applications and AKS workloads, aiming for a centralized, secured registry strategy with centralized vulnerability scanning and governance.
Dependency-Track & SBOM strategy: advising the compliance board on introducing a central SBOM and vulnerability management platform to increase enterprise-wide dependency transparency and accelerate CVE response capability.
CI/CD pipeline hardening: security analysis and cleanup of the existing pipeline landscape by removing unused pipelines, improving secrets hygiene, implementing least-privilege principles, and isolating build agent environments.
Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) optimization: analysis and tuning of existing Azure WAF rules (OWASP Top 10 Core Rule Set, DSR/SDC, custom rules) to defend against known vulnerabilities and exploit patterns, including reducing false positives and improving threat detection.
Documentation & stakeholder communication: creating and maintaining technical documentation, runbooks, and architecture overviews in Jira and Confluence, as well as active knowledge transfer between operations, development, security, and compliance stakeholders.
Yannick Tessa
Last position:
Cloud Architect at Anonymous
- Implementation of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Terraform to ensure a scalable, repeatable, and secure Azure infrastructure
- Implementation and optimization of CI/CD pipelines with Azure DevOps
- Management of container and server environments and AKS
Valeri Milke
Last position:
Associate Partner - Information Security Consulting at Insentis GmbH
- Improvement of the Information Security Management System (ISMS) based on ISO 27001, NIS2, DORA, B3S, TISAX and BSI IT Baseline Protection
- Conducting comprehensive gap analyses to identify gaps and derive action plans according to the above standards and regulations; management and KPIs
- Data Loss Prevention strategy and implementation using MS Purview
- Vulnerability and patch management, security monitoring
- Risk analysis and threat modeling using the STRIDE methodology
- Development of vendor risk assessments, implementation of risk classifications, conducting supplier assessments and implementing technical monitoring solutions (e.g. Security ScoreCard)
- Securing cloud environments (AWS and Azure); expertise in CSPM/CNAPP (Wiz), cloud migration, secure CI/CD pipelines, container security and best practices in AWS, Azure and Office 365
- Application security: penetration testing, DevSecOps, OWASP, pre-commit hooks, key and secret management, IDE plugins, static source code analysis, dependency checks, container scanning, vulnerability management, CIS benchmarks and compliance
- Security assessment and hardening according to CIS benchmarks and cloud conformity in AWS, Office 365 and Azure
Stanislav Stolberg
Last position:
Interim CTO / IT Consultant (Cloud & App Security · AI & Web3) at Deutsche Bank Group; Startups
- Spearheaded strategic and operational oversight of IT infrastructures to accelerate innovation and ensure audit-proof delivery.
- Acted as key liaison between management, business departments, and engineering, actively engaging in coding, cloud architecture, and CI/CD to resolve critical path challenges.
- Engineered and implemented an AI Governance Program to manage risks and ensure compliance with the EU AI Act, reducing AI use-case approval times from 8 to 3 weeks.
- Delivered and deployed secure AI systems into production (RAG-based knowledge platforms), resulting in a 35% decrease in standard support ticket volume.
- Established robust security standards and governance frameworks for APIs (OAuth2/OIDC, mTLS) and cloud platforms (AWS/GCP) to guarantee compliance and system integrity.
- Hardened cloud infrastructure by implementing Zero Trust principles and a comprehensive observability stack (logging/alerting), achieving 99.9% availability in a 24/7 on-call environment.
Pierre Gronau
Last position:
Ansible Automation, Windows Third Level Support at DB InfraGO AG
- PRISMA project
- Ansible automation
- Windows third level support for Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2013, Windows 2016, Windows 2019
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Statistics of experts using Zero Trust
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
16 years (Germany: 21 years)
Position duration
2 years (Germany: 2.2 years)
Positions per freelancer
19 (Germany: 15)
Top business areas
Information Technology, Project Management, Product Development
Top industries
Information Technology, Insurance, Government and Administration
Certification focus areas
Information Technology, Project Management, Product Development
Bachelor's degree or higher
75% (Germany: 88%)
Master's degree or higher
50% (Germany: 60%)
Certifications per freelancer
10 (Germany: 9)
Most common languages
German, English, French
Speak two or more languages
100% (Germany: 97%)
Based on our profile pool as of 30 Aug 2026.
Daily rate distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers in this technology in Cologne are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range.
Average rates of experts in Cologne using Zero Trust
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 30 Aug 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
About the technology
Zero Trust access
Zero Trust replaces broad network trust with continuous verification. It is used to control who can reach apps, data, APIs, and infrastructure, even inside the company network. That makes it a fit for hybrid work, cloud migration, and sensitive internal systems.
Core controls
- Strong identity and sign-in checks
- Least-privilege access policies
- Device posture and context checks
- Microsegmentation for internal traffic
- Logging and policy review
Typical use cases
Teams bring in Zero Trust specialists for VPN replacement, secure remote access, privileged access, and tighter control of SaaS and cloud resources. In Cologne, this often matters for industries with mixed office, plant, and remote work setups, where access rules must stay consistent across locations.
Tooling and standards
Zero Trust work often touches IAM, SSO, MFA, conditional access, EDR, ZTNA, PAM, and network segmentation. It also relies on clear policy design across vendors such as Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Zscaler, Okta, and Cloudflare, plus solid documentation so operations teams can run it day to day.
What strong specialists do
A strong Zero Trust professional connects security goals with practical rollout work. They map users, devices, apps, and data flows, then turn that into rules that are usable, testable, and auditable. They also know how to reduce friction without weakening control.
When to hire
Bring in freelance expertise when a rollout stalls, when you need a second opinion on policy design, or when teams disagree on architecture. Companies in Cologne also use outside specialists for remote assessments, migration planning, and hands-on support during changes that affect many users and systems.
Frequently asked questions
Curious about Zero Trust? Here are the answers that come up again and again.
Zero Trust is used to limit access to apps, data, and infrastructure based on identity, device health, and context instead of network location. It helps reduce lateral movement, tighten remote access, and protect internal systems that should not be openly reachable.
A Zero Trust design checks every request and grants only the access that is needed for the specific resource. A VPN usually places a user inside a trusted network segment, which can expose far more than the person actually needs.
A strong Zero Trust specialist usually understands IAM, SSO, MFA, network segmentation, device management, and logging. For many projects, knowledge of cloud security and privileged access management is also important.
A Zero Trust project benefits from outside expertise when the architecture is new, the environment is mixed across cloud and on-prem systems, or security teams need a clear rollout plan. It is also useful when policy design is stuck between security, operations, and user experience needs.
Zero Trust is broader than VPN replacement. It can include ZTNA for remote access, but it also covers access to SaaS apps, internal web tools, APIs, and sensitive infrastructure. Many teams start with remote access and expand from there.
Look for someone who can explain policy decisions in plain language and show how they test access paths before rollout. A strong Zero Trust professional will also talk about rollback plans, audit logging, exception handling, and how to avoid breaking daily work.
Yes, Zero Trust work is often well suited to remote collaboration because much of it involves policy design, documentation, and review of logs and diagrams. On-site time can still help when the specialist needs to inspect legacy network segments, endpoint controls, or office access patterns in Cologne.
Before you engage a Zero Trust specialist, prepare a list of critical apps, user groups, device types, and existing access controls. Clear goals for remote access, privileged accounts, and cloud resources make the first workshop and the later rollout much more effective.
The average hourly rate of freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used Zero Trust in their recent projects is 120 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 959 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used Zero Trust in their recent projects, 75% hold at least a Bachelor's degree and 50% hold at least a Master's degree.
On average, freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used Zero Trust in their recent projects have 16 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 2 years.
The most common languages among freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used Zero Trust in their recent projects are German (100%), English (100%), and French (33%).
The most common industries among freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used Zero Trust in their recent projects are Information Technology (83%), Insurance (67%), and Government and Administration (67%).
The most common business areas among freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used Zero Trust in their recent projects are Information Technology (100%), Project Management (100%), and Product Development (83%).
Main locations of FRATCH Experts, who have recently used Zero Trust
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
Berlin 
Munich 
Frankfurt Request a free demo
Get in touch with the FRATCH team and we will get back to you within 4 hours.
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
